The wanton destruction of public property should bother all of us because it’s our hard-earned money being wasted by thoughtless fools who are either too lazy or too stupid to channel their energy into productive pursuits, so they express themselves like mindless beasts on a rampage through the wild.

Sorry if I’m lacking the proper amount of modern understanding and touchy-feely sensitivity here, but I take the concept of property very seriously.

Public property belongs to all of us and it deserves the same amount of respect that we afford private property. We all paid to buy it. We all pay to maintain it. We all pay to fix it. We’d be incensed if someone did this to our homes or our yards. We should be equally upset that someone is vandalizing our parks on such a massive scale.

Whoever is doing this isn’t simply bored or misguided or in need of some structured activities at a community center. Whoever is doing this is selfish, rude and has absolutely no regard for the law or other people’s property.

There’s no sense making any public pleas for these vandals to stop their activities. They don’t have consciences. They don’t care about anything except indulging their impulses and expressing themselves in the only way their limited mental capacities can conceive.

I sincerely hope we catch whoever is destroying our parks and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law – no coddling, no counseling, no consideration.

They need to be punished swiftly and severely.

An example needs to be made.

I wish we were still allowed to place criminals in stocks in the town square so they could be taunted, tormented and humiliated by the public. Forget fines, probation and community service, let’s get back to basics.